The microfinance industry is progressing towards becoming a core of financial inclusion in the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region. Despite the recent growth of microfinance in the SSA, that industry is seemingly characterised by high lending rates. Those high rates have become a hotly debated topic amongst microfinance stakeholders. It is against this background that this study first investigates the factors that influence the persistently high microcredit interest rates in SSA; it does so by utilising a panel dataset assembled from the Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX) market, the Heritage Foundation, and the World Bank, covering the period 2003 to 2011. Secondly, this study examines the determinants of financial inclusion in SSA, using a cross-sectional dataset obtained from Statista and the Global Findex for the year 2014. Several empirical approaches are used in the study: Bayesian Model Averaging, fixed effects, Generalised Method of Moments, and Ordinary Least Squares. The results reveal evidence of the following: (i) the operating costs associated with providing small loans, unexploited economies of scale, and institutional deficiencies all contribute towards increasing the microcredit interest rates; and (ii) volatile macroeconomic fundamentals exert undesirable effects on the microcredit interest rates. Second, a methodical analysis of the relationship between outreach to the poor and the financial performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs), produced the following findings: (i) providing smaller microcredits is associated with lower operating profit, and the exact opposite is true; and (ii) outreach to the poor clients is significantly related to a stronger financial performance. Third, the results of the determinants of financial inclusion demonstrate that illiteracy negatively affects financial inclusion in SSA. Overall, the study's empirical findings suggest that the following approach is needed to promote low microcredit interest rates. First, MFIs must be supported to expand outreach, and adopt digital technology to drive operational efficiency; second, countries in SSA must strengthen the prevailing weak institutional environment in the region; and third, macroeconomic policy regimes must be moderated, particularly by maintaining low and stable inflation rates. In relation to financial inclusion, countries in SSA must be committed to fighting functional illiteracy. All this could contribute to a financial inclusion agenda and towards poverty eradication in the SSA region.

Crypto-assets and blockchain technology have created much uncertainty within the field of taxation. While some jurisdictions have attempted to formulate responses, others have yet to meaningfully engage with the topic. In contrast to the taxation of the digitalised economy, a coordinated global approach to the taxation of crypto-asset transactions is notably lacking. Rather than focusing on individual jurisdictions, this study addresses the consequences of crypto-asset transactions within the international tax system. It begins by applying an adapted form of the constant comparison method traditionally employed in grounded theory research to a selection of crypto-assets white papers to inductively identify possible taxable events, and from these to develop ten transaction categories, each with definitive characteristics. These categories then form the basis of a doctrinal analysis of the nature within the international tax system of the income arising and its classification within the text of the articles of the model tax conventions. Finally, the study considers the potential future impact of measures to tax the digitalised economy. The study finds that while it is possible to classify each of the identified transaction categories within the articles of the model tax conventions, alternative constructions within treaties and existing differences in interpretation may still significantly impact the allocation of taxing rights. In addition, crypto-asset transactions may further challenge the role of the permanent establishment concept in determining taxing rights and contribute to base erosion. While such transactions may fall within the measures to tax the digitalised economy, the pseudonymous, decentralised nature of blockchain technology may frustrate the application of these measures. This study may inform individual jurisdictions in designing the scope and outcomes of a comprehensive response to crypto-asset transactions. It may also provide a basis for the classification of these transactions within the international tax system, and support the development of a globally coordinated response to the taxation of crypto-assets. Finally, it may contribute to the broader development of the taxation of the digitalised economy, in which crypto-asset transactions may play an increasingly significant role in the future.

The concept of roll-over risk encapsulates the risk that a bank sitting on an interbank panel may be unable to borrow at the interbank overnight reference rate at some point in the future. Roll-over risk is comprised of two separate risks: the risk that the bank may deteriorate in credit quality relative to the 'average' bank sitting on the interbank panel and the risk that the bank may experience worse liquidity than the 'average' panel bank. Roll-over risk has been offered as a possible explanation of basis spreads which have proliferated since the Global Financial Crisis. This dissertation makes use of the established methods in order incorporate rollover risk in the pricing of a caplet based on an underlying reference rate. The caplet pricing function is compared to traditional discretised Monte Carlo techniques. The performance of the function proves more accurate and computationally efficient.

This study aims to examine the long-term relationship between macroeconomic factors and stock market index levels for selected indices through a structural model which consists of a security valuation approach in the form of Dividend Discount Model(DDM) and an Engle and Granger cointegration model. The macroeconomic variables examined include inflation, money supply, exchange rates, index earnings, and interest rates. The data was gathered from various sources such as Bloomberg, and I-Net and was analysed over a period of 20 years from 2001 to 2021 on a monthly basis. Engle and Granger cointegration and the Error Correction Model (ECM) have been used to examine the long-term relationship and the deviation from long-run market equilibrium. In addition, this study also applies the impulse response function and variance decomposition to evaluate the stock market's response to macroeconomic shocks and to determine the magnitude of influence of each variable on the share price level. The results reveal that macroeconomic variables and stock market index levels are cointegrated and index levels deviate from long-term market equilibrium. Future research may consider evaluating qualitative variables and share price long-term relationship, this might answer the question of investor sentiments impact on mean reversion. Key words: Engle and Granger Cointegration, Error Correction Model, Index levels, Macroeconomic Variables

The provisions of Section 98B of the Zimbabwe Income Tax Act as read with the 35th schedule governing all related party transactions both domestic and cross border between companies forms the foundation of the transfer pricing legislative regulatory framework in Zimbabwe. The arm's length principle (ALP) is the source of applying the provisions in the regulations. Reference to the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comprehensive transfer pricing guidelines is given for interpretation purposes. Although Zimbabwe is not a member of the OECD it adopted the transfer pricing guidelines. This study examines the Zimbabwe Transfer Pricing Legislation with the aim of establishing the suitability and practicality of the transfer pricing methods for Zimbabwe. The unique Zimbabwean economic situation is considered. As a taxation tool, the guidelines' suggested methods have been applied with a lot of challenges, sometimes resulting to unwarranted loss of revenue with comparability being the major source of difficulties. It is against this backdrop that it was found necessary to examine the level in which OECD methods are relevant and applicable in the Zimbabwe's tax regime. To achieve this, this study identifies the 5 OECD transfer pricing methods and the comparability challenges that are faced when applying them to establish the arm's length prices. Comparability is an intrinsic part of the application of the Arm's Length Principle, which requires comparison of conditions under which related enterprises transact compared to those entered by unrelated enterprises (McNair, 2012). “The issue of comparability remains the cornerstone of transfer pricing” (Sikka, P. and Willmott, H., 2010). The comparability analysis should result in a range of prices, set for uncontrolled transactions with conditions like those of the controlled transactions (McNair, 2012). The five existing comparability factors are (i) the characteristics of the property or services transferred, (ii) the functions performed considering the assets used and risks assumed, (iii) the contractual terms, (iv) the economic circumstances of the parties and (v) the business strategies pursued by the parties (OECD, 2017). Overall the ALP, applied through specific pricing methodologies evaluated in this dissertation, is considered to provide a reasonable arm's length price. The applicability the methods is however, specific to each transaction and the accessibility of comparable information. Inadequate information on comparable uncontrolled transactions in Zimbabwe makes the application of the arm's length principle cumbersome. v ANDILE NCUBE NCBAND004 - The suitability and practicality of the OECD Transfer Pricing Methods to Zimbabwe Moreover, other general problems include the size of the market being considered which limits the nature and extent of information available; the time and expense involved in undertaking comparability analyses; and underestimation of the impact of the differences between the tested party and the comparables (Ado, E. 2015). These problems can be a hindrance in achieving the desired level of comparability and, therefore, can affect the accurate application of the arm' s length principle. Hence it is necessary to consider other options to ensure certainty and to avoid the adverse effects of double taxation and double non-taxation that may otherwise arise. Further, the research showed that Zimbabwe is lagging as there is no compliance threshold for documentation, no practice notes for guidance, and does not subscribe to the BEPS Action plan. The three main risks that were identified included the following the following: ➢ Unavailability of a database that will assist the revenue authorities in determining an appropriate arm's length price. ➢The inadequacy of skills, know-how and experience in evaluating arm's length prices. ➢ The challenges of having access to relevant, appropriate, and apt information to precisely determine arm's length price for different classes of transactions. In Zimbabwe, both the economic and political climate has been volatile over years, as result comparable transactions are less existent. For example, the period 1998-2007 was the Zimbabwe Dollar era, 2008 was hyper-inflationary period, 2009-2013 the economy and trade improved, and the period 2014-2018 has been a fall in economy activities and changes to the political landscape. All these trends affect the availability of comparable transactions. For this reason, it is very important for the taxpayer to critically assess the acceptability of the comparable data chosen, consider and document any adjustments and ensure that an adequate comparability analysis, including the review of more than one transfer pricing methodology, has been performed and recorded in full (Miller, K. and Joubert, B., 2016). Lastly, appropriate recommendations are then made to the relevant authorities for a possible modification and or provide guidance with regards to the Transfer Pricing legislation.

The applicable law governing the income tax deductibility of home workspace expenses incurred by persons in employment has remained contentious and inconclusive. This has been heightened given the accelerated shift toward employees working from home in recent years. It is therefore necessary for there to be research conducted in resolving this heightened contention, with potential legislative amendments being recommended to National Treasury, who have acknowledged that the applicable law needs to be updated. An exposition of the applicable law over the last fifty years is provided, which includes historical analyses and the general mechanics of the law. More complex matters relating to the interpretation of the applicable law are then highlighted and analysed in light of the applicable principles of fiscal statutory interpretation (mainly using the landmark Endumeni approach). The South African Revenue Service (‘SARS') has attempted to update the existing Interpretation Note (‘IN') dealing with home workspace expenditure, for which they released two drafts, both in 2021; and finalised such IN in 2022. Although SARS' interpretations are determined to not be authoritative in terms of the law, their interpretations are analysed in terms of the applicable law to identify and analyse inconclusive matters. These matters relate to the types of home workspace expenses that are tax deductible, and the ‘tests' under section 23(b). Some of the key findings in this regard are that the legislation does not require a separate-room home workspace, and that all of the ‘tests' should be performed for the period which an employee is working from home, even if this period is less than a full year of assessment. Potential legislative amendments are identified, specifically in the short-term, by looking to comparable jurisdictions, namely the United Kingdom and Canada. These jurisdictions offer taxpayers a ‘simplified cost' deduction which is capped to a legislated amount. Legislating a ‘simplified cost' deduction accordingly will provide the fiscus more time to adequately review the applicable law substantially, given the accelerated shift toward employees working from home and heightened contention in this regard.

Certainly, a decision to (dis) invest (buy/sell) in securities is largely influenced by future expectations to which in turn is informed by the fundamental analysis of historical prices. The investor supposedly extrapolated on the historical prices if below the mean you buy and vice versa. The average security prices must be the product of the passing of time but most importantly the direction must be susceptible to a particular point in time. Investor decision-making involves a selection of a combination of the individual security characteristic with the market sentiment (bearish or bullish). The market sentiments are measured on time passed, i.e., market prices are either higher or lower relative to historical prices and the investor holding period wish. Valuation is nothing but a timing exercise to which the future perspective is forged on the future outlook of both micro and macro-economic factors. The valuation is relative to a true return generating process for a ‘true' single security market portfolio, i.e., expected future earnings. The occurrence of ‘unexpected earnings' creates an expectation of above ‘true' market portfolio returns, i.e., abnormal returns (ARs). This study is premised on the appreciation and understanding of the manifestation of a ‘true' single stock market portfolio. The study presents the analysis of the contemporaneous association of unexpected earnings also referred to as cautionary earning or ‘earnings surprise' published in the Trading Statement releases (hereinafter referred to as ‘releases') and security price movement. This research study is the second to investigate, at least to the researcher's knowledge after Cata (2015), the entire price formation process on the effects of unexpected cautionary and annual earnings announcements on security market prices of the JSE listed. Firstly, the expectations are that security prices adjust immediately to earnings and /or price-sensitive market information when made public. Secondly, since earnings information is fully impounded onto security prices a not statistically significant ARs are earned on and around the disclosures. Lastly, no statistically significant cumulative abnormal returns (ie CARs) post-earnings releases and announcements (I.e., PEADs) and any non-random security return drift indicate a level of inefficiency. The study adopted a return based unexpected earnings measures or model of Foster, Olsen and Shevlin (1984), and Van Rensburg's (2002) two-factor Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) to be a factor analytic procedure for assessment of a true return generating process for a ‘true' single stock market portfolio. The empirical evidence suggests investors revise the security valuations to an extent of 85 to 90 (Ball and Brown, 1968) and 85 to 98 (Kornik, 2005) percentage before an unexpected earnings announcement. This observation strengthens the argument that other timelier sources of information are already factored into share price prior to unexpected earnings releases. An alternative argument on legitimate information dissemination and other timelier sources of information provides a compelling argument for an all-encompassing multi factor-model in the context of JSE. According to Dr. Holman (20181 ) a measured or weighed multi factor-model consisting of a metal index, interest rate (i.e., 5 or 10 years repo rate), inflation rate, currency, beta, economy (i.e., GDP growth), stock size (small vs large capitalisation), leverage, unemployment rate, values such as price to book value or price-earnings (P/E) ratios, momentum (market biases – a big thing). Perhaps this to provide an explanatory power or rationale of the full market reaction when all price-sensitive factors are considered at once and rated accordingly is to explain the extent of the usefulness of the market information from a piece of specific unexpected event news. In so doing provide for an opportunity to improve on the true return generating process for a ‘true' single stock market portfolio from Van Rensburg's (2002) two-factor Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT). The study's results come from an observation of five unexpected earnings models or measures and the trading statement news sign and size to ascertain the size of the security price movement and return drift. The evidence gathered is conclusive concerning the association of the information content generated through unexpected earnings disclosures and the average CARs and their t-statistic test found to be significantly different from the theoretical or expected zero return. However, the outcome of t-statistic tests is not statistically significant at a 5% significance level of significance over the observation period, therefore, they cast doubt on the use of the initial response to consistently earn earnings above average normal returns. The study observed a security price movement in line with ‘good' and ‘bad' news portfolios on [-3; -1] and [-1; -1] releases and [-2; -1] announcements in support of Kornik's (2005) observation of a significant portion of the market reaction occurring in the two days prior to the announcement date. Kornik (2005) suggests that either a substantial information leakage or simply legitimate information dissemination and /or anticipation (ie from other timelier sources of information) allows for investors to correctly adjust their earnings prediction through 1 From the lecture notes company analysis and /or interviews with management prior to unexpected earnings announcements. This study conclusion is that there is evidence of significant association to suggests an investor reassessment of their beliefs/expectations on the occurrence and the size of ‘earnings surprise' and unexpected annual earnings. The finding violates the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH) which assumes that security prices are instantly and fully reflective of all available information and that investors cannot use public information to consistently gain above-normal returns (Cata, 2014). It important to highlight that, contrary to Murie's (2014) and Cata's (2015), the study found no suggestion that investors wait to determine the uncertainty regarding the specific reason for the change in earnings on the releases date to be alleviated via the announcement or publication of actual earnings to conclude on inconsistencies observed with semi-strong form market efficiency. First and foremost a conclusion must be reached based on significant abnormal returns earned on the market news in periods surrounding earnings releases and announcements strengthened by the outcome of the unexpected earnings measures or models. Secondly, Murie (2014) correctly pointed out that unexpected earnings models or measures are not an information source to the market, unlike trading statement releases or earnings announcements. Thirdly, Murie (2014) did not investigate the entire price formation process and his [+3;+60] post-release would have included the effects of earnings announcements considering that on average it trails by approximately 9 trading days from the releases. What is known based on this study observation and Kornik's (2005) assertion is that new information should be impounded into the security price within a week (i.e., 5 days on average) of the announcement. The significant price movements appear to be taking place on intraday releases, previous studies show that the focus was only on closing and opening security prices. The observed price movement prior to, on the event date and after the release date supports the findings of Ball and Brown (1968) that the market uses other timelier sources of information available in the market to revise share valuations (Murie, 2014). However, the unexpected earnings are partly timely to the extent of approximately 15 to 10 (Ball and Brown, 1968) and /or 15 to 2 percent (Kornik, 2005) resulting from investors' revision of the security valuations to between 85 to 90 percent (Ball and Brown, 1968) and 85 to 98 (Kornik, 2005) percent before an unexpected earnings announcement. The researcher's view is that, since the expectations, in most cases, are influenced by the analysis of previous earnings announcements, the actual results and analysts' estimation, therefore, to a certain extent the price movement reflects the evolution of the investor/market sentiment and overtime change in earnings is judged in this context (i.e., reaction). At this point, it is advisable that future research looks into or considers subdividing the releases into voluntary (i.e., management forecast) and compulsory release (i.e regulatory requirement since 2010) as the latter appears to influence the extent of investors' response.

Assets can be priced using a variety of numerical methods. In some instances, a particular numerical method may be more appropriate than others. If one method is used to calibrate the model to market conditions, but another method is used to price the asset, the results obtained may be inconsistent. This dissertation addresses the fundamental problem of this bias that is introduced when calibrating and pricing options using inconsistent methods. The random grids approach, developed by Andreasen and Huge (2011), is a pricing method that guarantees discrete consistency between calibration, finite difference solution and Markov-chain MonteCarlo simulation based on the random grids approach. This dissertation provides a review and implementation of this random grids approach for pricing under the Heston model as well as the stochastic local volatility model. Consistent results are obtained for a call option under the various pricing methods using similar parameters as those used in the random grids paper. More specifically, when using a Heston model, consistent prices are obtained for the characteristic function pricing method, the backward finite difference method, the forward finite difference method as well as the Markov-chain Monte-Carlo method based on the random grids approach. Similarly, consistent prices are obtained under the stochastic local volatility model for the backward finite difference method, the forward finite difference method and the Markov-chain Monte-Carlo method based on the random grids approach.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Breslau, 1912. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [7]-8).